Terror group ISIS has reportedly been defeated and driven out from the Syrian border town of Kobane following a near four-months-long battle, a monitoring group has said. Kurdish forces backed by other rebel groups have not allowed the city to the fall, with the offenses causing the deaths of at least 1,313 fighters, mostly from ISIS.

"The shelling and clashes between YPG, backed by rebel battalions and other fighters from several brigades, and IS militants resulted in death of 1,313 fighters; 979 fighters from IS organization, including 38 fighters blew themselves up using booby-trapped vehicles and explosive belts, 324 fighters from YPG and 12 fighters from the rebel battalions." more >>

The leader of Pakistani politico-religious party Jamaat-e Islami is claiming that the Western "extremist standpoint" on the freedom of news organizations to publish "blasphemous caricatures" of Islam's prophet Muhammad will ultimately lead to World War III.

In addressing the thousands in attendance at a Friday protest over the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, which publicized cartoons portraying Muhammad, the influential chief of the Jamaat-e Islami party, Sirajul Haq, demanded that the United Nations make laws designed to prevent the media and others from mocking religious personalities.

Haq explained that the West's leniency and tolerance in dealing with those who mock Islam by publishing Muhammad's image could lead to yet another Great War, The Express Tribune reports. more >>

The Rev. Franklin Graham, head of Samaritan's Purse and son of renowned evangelist Billy Graham, feels that other religions are being brought to the forefront in the U.S. while Christianity is being pushed back.

Graham appeared on WNCN News to discuss his recent comments on Duke University's decision to end its policy on having an Islamic call to prayer at the campus' Christian chapel.

He also stated that the U.S. is a nation 'built on Christian principles and that Americans need to embrace those principles. more >>

Saudi Arabia and the Islamic State terrorist group have a nearly identical justice system in their interpretation of Shariah law and the use of capital punishment, according to a Middle Eastern news site.

Known as Middle East Eye, the news site posted a chart on Twitter Tuesday noting the similarities between the legal code of the Saudi Kingdom and ISIS.

"It is the test of good religion," G. K. Chesterton wrote, "whether you can joke about it." If the reactions of religion's proponents is any judge, Judaism and Christianity fair pretty well. Islam—at least a large segment of Islam—doesn't think its very funny.

Of course no practicing Jew, Christian, or Muslim considers the cartoons published by Charlie Hebdo as funny. At best their cartoons are sophomoric, at worst pornographic. Anyone familiar with the paper knows its stock-in-trade is poking a stick in religion's eye, hoping to rid French society of God. The way they've chosen to do this is through what they purport to be satire—though it's hardly Jonathan Swift.

Webster defines satire as "a literary work holding up human vices and follies to ridicule or scorn." Charlie Hebdo has mastered the art of ridicule and scorn. But their judgment that all religions, particularly the three great religions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, are merely "human vices and follies" is imbecilic. Some lunatic practices and practitioners of these religions no doubt are worthy of mockery and contempt, but to consider the totality of these religions as wicked or foolish is a gross misunderstanding of these faiths and a deliberate distortion of history. more >>

The United Nations warned on Tuesday that ISIS militants are executing educated women within the territories it controls, reporting that the militants have already executed three female lawyers this month.

UN spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told reporters that numerous women living in ISIS strongholds, especially in the Iraqi city of Mosul, have recently been killed by ISIS militants and added that educated women are especially in danger.

"Educated, professional women, particularly women who have run as candidates in elections for public office seem to be particularly at risk," Shamdasani said. "In just the first two weeks of this year, reports indicated three female lawyers were executed." more >>